


Making the Wrong Thing Your Business

by Telaryn



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M, Kidnapping, Miscommunication, Past Relationship(s), Protectiveness, Rare Pairings, Secret Relationship, Tasers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 02:53:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5810803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the things the Leverage team has to worry about is their enemies trying to get at them through the people they care most about.  To help forestall this happening, Nate put surveillance on Maggie Collins years ago.</p><p>Most of them time he gets weekly reports and nothing comes of them.  But then he sees that Maggie is keeping company with somebody very familiar to the Leverage team.  Somebody who takes the concept of a "bad boy" to the next level.</p><p>Time to send in the troops...whether Maggie likes it or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making the Wrong Thing Your Business

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladyjax](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyjax/gifts).



> YOU LISTED MAGGIE/QUINN AS A PAIRING, AND IT ISN'T EVEN MY BIRTHDAY! *flails* Kinda skewed away from your prompts once I saw that - I hope the result is to your liking.
> 
> Thank you for playing with us again1

It was one of the hallmarks of Jonah Quinn’s life that this wasn’t the first time he’d woken up in a drafty, dirty warehouse, tied to a chair. It wasn’t even the second, the fifth or the fiftieth.

What hurt this time was that he hadn’t even been doing anything. He wasn’t on the job – hadn’t taken a contract in over two months – but in the end that hadn’t mattered. They’d caught him walking down a suburban sidewalk, his entire nervous system lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree.

 _Taser…_ His head bowed and Quinn chuckled softly as realization washed over him. “You could have asked!” he yelled, raising his head and calling out into the stillness. “You’ve got my damn cell phone number!”

“Yeah, but you look so funny when she makes you dance like that.” Boot heels tapped a slow rhythm against the concrete slab as Eliot Spencer walked into his line of sight. The other hitter was trying to look serious, but Quinn could see the hints of barely suppressed amusement in his eyes. Alec Hardison moved in his wake, ubiquitous smart phone in hand, his attention ticking almost rhythmically between the screen in his hand and the drama in front of his eyes.

Quinn could detect no hint of amusement in his expression. “Joke’s over, guys,” he said, projecting as much sincerity as he could. “What’s going on?”

Eliot crossed his arms over his chest, and _now_ he was as serious as his teammate. “What were you doing in that neighborhood, Quinn?”

 _He never stayed for breakfast._ “The last thing a woman like you needs is the neighbors talking,” he’d protested as she reached for him – trying once again to convince him to stay. He was trying so hard to do right by this one, but she was direct and fairly relentless about how much she appreciated having him in her bed.

“I…uh…I have a girlfriend,” he said, trying to meet Eliot’s eyes and failing.

“We know,” the hacker said, his voice colder than Quinn had ever heard it. “What we don’t know is why?”  
****************************************  
It was inevitable. She was going to kill her ex-husband.  
Maggie finished pouring out the chocolate milk her guest had requested, and returned to the living room.

Parker – the current leader of Team Leverage – took the milk with a nod of thanks. “He and Sophie are still in Europe.”

She had enough frequent flier miles to do it, once she got the thief – or may be Eliot? – to admit exactly _where_ Nate and Sophie were currently enjoying their marital bliss. “I don’t deserve this, Parker,” she said, settling back in her chair, huffing out a frustrated breath. “I’m a grown woman. I support myself – I’m perfectly capable of deciding if I want to date somebody _or_ sleep with them!”

The young woman sitting opposite her looked confused. “This isn’t about you having a boyfriend. You know that, right?”

Maggie tried to remember if she’d ever had a conversation with Parker that hadn’t left her feeling like she was the stupid one. “You just said that Nate’s been watching me – watching this place!”

She nodded. “He hasn’t said anything about Jason though. Or Ted, or Michael, or…” There was no judgment in her tone, but Maggie waved her to silence nevertheless. “You made yourself a target by helping us beat Dubenich,” Parker went on. “For everybody else it didn’t matter – we were all criminals. We know how to protect ourselves.”

Something Sophie had said came back to Maggie then and she slumped even further in her chair, shaking her head. “I’m the honest one, though. I’m the easiest to get close to.” Pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes, she thought back over the past handful of weeks – looked for any sign that the impossibly charming stranger was anything but what he’d presented himself to be.

“Jonah’s not like that.” She lowered her hands, sitting up straighter. “He’s not.”

“Who?” Parker asked. A heartbeat later, her eyes widened. “Ah – that’s Quinn’s name, isn’t it?”  
***************************  
 _Ford’s ex-wife…_ If he wasn’t still in a whole lot of trouble, Quinn would have started laughing and he wasn’t sure at this point he could have stopped. “Eliot, man – I didn’t know. I swear.”

He could have sworn he heard a disbelieving snort come from Hardison, but the hacker wasn’t who he had to convince. Nate Ford still hadn’t shown his face in this equation – if he did, Eliot Spencer would likely be the only thing standing between Quinn and a very deep, very dark hole.

As much as Quinn believed he and the other hitter were friends, he had to acknowledge that he’d been in better positions. “Eliot, man, think. What would I have to gain by trying to get at Ford? Especially like this – I’d be better off in the end refusing the contract and raising the alert with you guys!”

“You’ve got a code, Quinn,” Eliot said. “You’re very proud of your reputation – it’s why you won’t come on full time with us. People know you’ve picked a side, it changes how they see you.”

Quinn’s heart sank. _He’s not wrong._ “How can I convince you? I met her at a gallery opening. She’s beautiful, smart and single – you know how often that happens?” He caught a micro-shift in Eliot’s expression and seized on it. “Wait – you and Maggie?”

Even in the dim light, Quinn could see the color rising in Eliot’s cheeks. “I didn’t know she was Nate’s wife at the time!” he protested.

From behind him, still half-concealed in shadow, a voice snarled “ _Ex_ -wife!”

Maggie Collins strode forward into the light, and in that moment Quinn knew that he’d never wanted any woman more than this one. “What the hell, Eliot?” she snapped, focusing her anger entirely on the other hitter. “Did you hurt him?” Before he could recover enough to answer, she rounded on Quinn. “Did he hurt you?”

“Parker tased him to bring him down,” Eliot said. At the edge of his vision, Quinn saw the thief slip from the shadows and move closer to Hardison. “Right now we’re just talking, trying to figure out what he’s up to.”

He was trying to hold his ground, but Maggie wasn’t having any part of it. “Let him go.” Eliot opened his mouth – clearly intending to protest – but she cut him off with a sharp motion of her hand. “Let him go, Eliot. Now.” The last word carried an undercurrent of a growl, and Quinn _knew_ he’d never seen anything hotter in his life.

“Do I need to get Sophie here to explain how far over the line you people have gone?” Maggie asked, as Eliot went forward and began undoing the chains that bound Quinn to the chair.

“Not a word, if you know what’s good for you,” he muttered, pitching his voice so that only Quinn would be able to hear him. A few feet away, Hardison took a step forward – clearly determined to defend their actions.

“Nate was just worried. Quinn gets hired all the time for jobs like this – if one of our enemies wanted to get at Nate, you’re a…” Parker had grabbed his sleeve and was shaking her head, even as an enraged Maggie took a step forward.

“I’m a what..?” Maggie asked, the challenge clear in her voice.

“Don’t say target, man,” Eliot sighed, keeping as focused on his work as he could.

“We should have trusted her to look out for herself and us,” Parker intoned – almost, Quinn realized, as if she was parroting something Maggie had already told her. “This isn’t cute, it isn’t romantic, and California has a stalker law.”

Maggie crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at all of them pointedly. Eliot finished setting Quinn loose and actually flinched backwards when he saw the look in her eyes.

“Is anyone going to mind if I get up?” he asked, making his own voice deliberately as mild as he could. “I’ve got some major stiffness to work out.”

Quinn hadn’t intended for it to come out that way, but then he heard Eliot groan and saw a flash of surprise in Maggie’s expression, followed by a choked off giggle. “Y’all nasty,” Hardison commented, and then the three of them whose minds had gone straight into the gutter began snickering in earnest.

A lot of the tension seemed to have bled out of the space. “Help him up,” Maggie said, gesturing at Eliot.

“You gave up a chance with somebody like that?” Quinn asked as Eliot dutifully moved into position to steady him on his feet.

“Wasn’t worth the drama,” Eliot countered. “Trust me.”

“I don’t suppose I’m getting an apology?” Quinn asked, knowing he likely wouldn’t, but feeling the need to ‘poke the bear’, as it were, anyway.

Now Eliot snorted again, but his tone was lighter when he said, “Only if she makes me.”


End file.
